Philip Selway is best known as the drummer for Radiohead, but he’s also a singer-songwriter whose last solo albums , Weatherhouse, flowed on lush textures, seductive melodies and probing lyrics. He draws on gentle psychedelic sounds that have echoes of The Zombies and the Moody Blues, tempered with the artful rhythmic turns and electronic textures that mark Radiohead’s’ music.
Hearing Air performing on Jean-Michel Jarre’s forthcoming album, E-Project, reminded me of the great performance they played for us back in 2004. We first interviewed Air back in 1998 when their first album, Moon Safari came out. They’ve been on since then in 2007 with a Blindfold Test in the Echoes Chamber and again in 2012 when we talked about their last album, Le Voyage Dans La Lune. Here’s a couple of pictures from their 2014 session.
Nouveau Flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook came to renown with his debut album, Tempest, in 1995. At the time he road in on the coattails of Nouveau Flamenco pioneer Ottmar Liebert and bands like The Gipsy Kings, but Cook always had his own sound, one that that morphed and fused over the course of two decades and several albums. He’s taken his flamenco influenced guitar playing into new settings with every album. On One World he goes global and electronica in a studio infused album of journeys from the serene to the ecstatic. One world is the Echoes CD of the Month for August.
Ascendant is a duo of Californian musicians exploring the Big Bang, and other mysteries of the universe, through meticulously-crafted synthesizer soundscapes.
It’s an eclectic Echoes Top 25 for July with Heather Woods Broderick’s gorgeous album, Glider, our CD of the Month, at the top. Jean-Michel Jarre’s E-Project is also there and that album doesn’t even come out until October. I’m very excited to see Silencio in there at #3. This band includes former members of The Mandrake Project out of Pittsburgh. With Silencio, they create music inspired by director David Lynch and composer Angelo Badalamenti of Twin Peaks and other fame. Go down to #10 and you’ll see our Echoes CD of the Month for August, sure to be the future number one album.
On the next Echoes, keyboardist Ryan Farish takes a more rhythmic, driving approach on a new release called Spectrum while the European trio Broekhuis, Keller and Schoenwalder go retro-space.
Coming up on the next Echoes it’s new music from flute players, Sherry Finzer and Mark Holland who collaborate on an album called Flute Flight. We’ll also hear new music from Norway’s Erik Wøllo.
Ascendant is a duo of Californian musicians exploring the Big Bang, and other mysteries of the universe, through meticulously-crafted synthesizer soundscapes.
Ólafur Arnalds is one of the signature composers of ambient chamber music, and in the last year, he’s released an album based on the compositions of Chopin, scored BBC TV series, Broadchurch and recorded an all electronic project as Kiasmos.
Howling brings together an Australian singer and German electronic artist who met on Skype. They have a new album of electro-pop called Sacred Ground. We’ll hear that and new, surprisingly mellow music from the Japanese guitar assault band, Mono.